by Aimee Moore
Dal tensed and came at me with hulking steps. “Do not ask that of me,” he snarled.
I stood my ground and glared at him. “You'll snap a Kraw neck without a thought but you won't grant a small human the mercy of release. Is your hatred of me so strong?” I asked.
Dal shook his head and looked away, frowning at the wall. When he looked at me again, he said, “You are not Kraw. Without food and warmth, you will die. You are nearly dead already.”
I looked down at my body. Once soft and tender with unspoiled youth and hope, it was now hard with dirt and bones. What would my dear Lonnie think of me now, if he were alive? My family would never recognize me, save for my red hair. Even that was tangled and dirt crusted.
I raised my eyes to Dal, who was still wearing only threadbare pants. “And you are not starving, nor are you shivering.”
Dal gave a stern nod and went to sit against the wall. “Kraw are strong. Many worlds have forged us. Yours is soft.”
I glared. “It was soft, until you barbarians destroyed it.”
Dal gave me the barest hint of a smile, the corners of his mouth pulling up. “Many cracks in your dam, Sera. You have built it too high and cannot see over it.”
“What does that mean?”
Dal ignored me, getting comfortable against the wall.
I shivered with cold and anger. Glaring at Dal, I said, “And why do you ignore me? Can Kraw shut off their hearing when they choose, or are you that cruel?”
“You are... worms, to Kraw. If we speak, they remove you.” His eyes were closed, as if he were preparing for a nap.
With a sigh, I exhaled my frustration and looked around the hut. The walls, though slivered with holes, were strong. The dirt floor was cold beneath my bare feet, and the small pitcher of water was muddy. No blankets, no padding of any sort, no warmth to be had. I would freeze tonight. Setting my jaw in a firm line, I made the first strange choice of many that would alter my life. I padded over to sit next to Dal. He did not flinch away or rebuff me.
“You're protecting me. That's why you treat me this way,” I whispered.
Long black lashes lifted, and he looked down at me, searching. His body heat soaked into my being, and goosebumps stiffened my skin in prickly waves once more.
“Why? Why would you protect someone who's just worm food to your people? You hated me when we met on that cart, I saw it on your face.”
Dal looked up at the ceiling for a moment before speaking. “I do not know.”
I sunk my head back against the wall as well. Another tremor raced through my body, and I inched myself closer to Dal, pressing against his side. The warmth coming off the Kraw was like hot springs on a chill day, and I couldn’t stop myself from squishing my bones into Dal's muscled bulk.
With a glance at the door, Dal raised an arm that was as thick as my middle and pulled me in closer. Shivers raced through me, one after another, jolts of strange electricity following in their wake. Dal did not look at me, did not attempt conversation more, only relaxed against the wall of the hut, arm over the shivering human at his side.
Eventually, my tremors died down, and Dal spoke again, breaking the heavy silence with a whisper of his deep voice.
“Patroma wanted something from you.”
“She asked me to show her how to use fire like the Gifted of my race do,” I whispered.
Dal showed no reaction to this.
I snuggled into his side even more, my skin purring at the delicious heat. “It doesn't make sense to me though. The Kraw ravaged my village, killed all in their path without question, except me. I was doing the same as everyone else, running and hiding. I am the same as them. I have no abilities. I have nothing to give Kraw, and here I sit.”
I looked down at my dirty, knobby body. “I barely even have me anymore,” I said on a sad whisper. I looked up at Dal to see him gazing down at me.
Again, the hazel eyes were illuminating the pages of my book. Why had no one ever looked at me this way before? Truly looked? After a minute, Dal brought his other hand to my face, lifting a wavy lock of red hair in his massive hand.
“Fire,” he whispered, dropping his hand and resuming his indifferent pose against the wall.
I fingered the lock he'd touched, frowning. “And Patroma called my race primitive, when Kraw judge me by the color of my hair.”
Dal's body shook with silent laughter.
“What's funny?” I frowned up at the massive Kraw.
But Dal was silent again.
We rested that way for a time, until another question charged out of my mouth.
“Do all Kraw speak my language, Dal?”
“No.”
“Where did you learn?”
“You.”
My mouth popped open in shock, and I looked up at Dal, who still had his head rested against the wall, eyes closed. “That's impossible, we haven't had any conversations.”
“You say enough.”
“You learned my language just by listening to me? That's preposterous.”
“Kraw are... superior. Your language is not hard.”
“How many languages do you know?”
Dal grunted as his brows drew together in a frown. “Twenty-three.”
I watched him for some sign of humor, but there was none, only the relaxed countenance of one who was attempting to nap. “You can't be serious,” I said.
“Many worlds, many languages.”
I frowned up at Dal, wondering at what sort of foreign creature I was pressed into. “How old are you, Dal?”
Dal frowned. “You ask too many questions.”
“You give too little answers. How old?”
Dal was silent for a moment, and I feared that he wasn't going to answer. “I have not yet learned the words for my time,” he whispered.
I pursed my lips in thought, about to pester him more when Dal sprang up and distanced himself from me. I slumped to the floor with a gasp, my body once again stiffening at the cold. Dal was already laying on the opposite end of the hut, ignoring me when the hut door opened. I looked at the Kraw who were entering, bearing a large basket with a blanket folded on top.
They smirked and spoke in their barking language while casting sinister gazes at me. I raised my chin as I righted myself, refusing to cower. Dal growled something, and the Kraw clipped harsh tones at Dal, who let loose a snarling tirade of angry words. They dropped the basket near me and continued to pester Dal, who got to his feet and began to roar at the intruders. I watched, hunched against the wall, wide eyed as all Kraw in the room snarled and postured. Punches were thrown, grunts and dust flew, and when the dust cleared, Dal was bruised on the floor and the other Kraw were gone.
Glancing at the closed door, I rushed to Dal to help him up. He snarled at me, reminding me that he was as fierce and unpredictable as a wolf. I sat back, watching in helpless wonder as Dal got up and palmed away the blood on his chin, spitting more blood on the floor as he glared at the closed door.
“Why do you provoke them so?” I whispered.
He threw a glare at me as muscles tensed. Dal ignored me and went back to his lonely spot on the floor, and I searched my mind for something to say. But Dal's back was turned to me, and I didn't want to make him angrier, so I went to the basket and lifted the blanket, gasping in delight when I found smoked meats and pickled vegetables underneath.
There was also sugared fruits and a pitcher of water that had sloshed all over the thin blanket. It was the best basket I had ever seen in my life, and my angry beast of a stomach forced me to throw myself on the food with a ferocity that even Dal would have been proud of. After a few mouthfuls, I looked up at Dal to see that he had not moved. Angry purple and black bruises were blossoming across his dusky skin, a stain spreading under the elaborate tattoos.
Glancing down at the basket, I picked up large handfuls of food and padded over to Dal, kneeling in front of him. His eyes were closed and the mask of serene calm was once again in place. I put the food where he would
see it and went back to my spot on the other side of the hut, skirting a splash of blood in the dirt floor. I lifted the blanket out of the basket and wrapped myself in it, grateful for some way to stave off the cold.
But the nights were colder than the days, by far, and the thin blanket failed to chase away the shivers that stole under my clothes and ravaged me in the night. The noises outside the hut had died down, and the light peeking through the cracks in the walls was gone. Frost was encroaching on my circle of dirt, and my teeth began a chattering death march.
I curled as tight as I could, attempting to preserve my heat, but the cold stole it away from me. My fingers, toes, and nose had lost sensation already, and the numbness was spreading to my body. I wondered if I would perish here tonight, a block of ice by morning. It would be a long, hard march toward that blissful end.
And then there was heat. I gasped and turned to see Dal, settling in to lay behind me. Alarm and gratefulness warred within me. “What are you doing?” I whispered.
“I cannot sleep when you make so much noise.”
“I'm not making any noise.”
Dal slumped to his side behind me, pulling my body in close to his as if I were a tiny doll. His heat burned me, and I resisted the urge to shove away, letting off a hiss instead. “You are loud when cold, Sera,” Dal whispered into my ear.
The whisper created a new warmth within me. One that gave me different shivers entirely as confusion chased self-loathing through my brain, nipping at the heels of my common sense. Dal's large body was pure muscle, strong and hot and firm. His breathing up against my back was steady and even. His thick arm, draped over me and pinning me to him, was both reassuring and frightening.
There was nothing inappropriate at all about this, and yet, I had never lain with a man like so. It was mysterious and odd and close all at once.
Dal shifted then, and his lower body ground against the backs of my thighs for a whisper of a moment. With a heavy sigh, Dal's body stilled into rest, but my heart was racing as the realization poured through me that Kraw had very human needs. Right now, this Kraw had me pinned. My eyes widened and my body tensed as I wondered if he brushed up against me on purpose. What was I doing laying here with him?
Dal's warm breath brushed my ear. “Kraw do not mate with humans. It is forbidden. Go to sleep.”
“I've seen what Kraw do to human women, tell them it's forbidden,” I whispered through clattering teeth.
A laugh shook Dal's body behind me. “That is not mating, that is taking,” he whispered. “I have had time to take if I wanted, human. Go to sleep.”
“So it's okay for Kraw to take humans, but forbidden to make love?”
“Love... one does not make such an emotion.”
“You mistake my words. That is what we call it when it isn't taking.”
“You are an expert on making?”
My face heated, and I was glad for the darkness so that the beast wrapped around me could not see my flushed face. “No,” I whispered.
The Kraw's body rocked with soft laughter once more, and I found myself wondering what the large body ensconcing me in its warmth had done. What had the dinner plate sized hand in front of me done to other females? Were they willful? Was I laying with an instrument of evil?
“Are you an expert on taking?” I asked, trying put on a brave face that said I wasn't bothered by the topic at hand.
My heart raced as the silence stretched on. Dal's warm breath brushed my ear once more. “Only when asked. Now sleep.”
Something in my belly fluttered. What did “only when asked” mean? Typical Dal ambiguity on a subject.
Despite the buzzing of my mind, sleep found me quicker than usual that night.
Chapter 3
New Understanding
“This is ridiculous,” I said, looking up into eyes lit by a smirk.
“This is necessary.” Dal gestured for me to come closer. In the weeks following our arrival at Patroma's war camp, Dal had gotten a much better handle on my language, and our relationship had evolved into a strange comfort.
“I'm not doing that,” I said.
“Kraw are strong. You will be unharmed.”
“Absolutely not. I'm just bones, what benefit could I possibly provide.”
Dal's gaze raked over me for a second. “You are no longer bones. You will aid me.”
“I'm not subjecting myself to that.”
Dal's face went slack with exasperation. “Woman, you will assist me or you will be cold.”
I glowered, crossing my arms under my breasts and tapping my foot. “Fine,” I said with a huff and marched over to Dal. “Here I am. Extortionist.”
I didn’t know if I should expect Dal to manhandle me like a sack of wheat or not. We were familiar with each other in the way that two people who snuggle for warmth every night should be, but never had we done this before. The massive hands were firm and gentle instead of hard and forceful, the hazel eyes warm as a spring day.
“Like this,” he murmured between us. Dal's hands took mine and put my arms at my sides, and I found that the muscles in my arms went soft on their own. Dal watched my eyes as he reached behind me, resting a large hand on my back.
“Soft here,” he whispered in that soft rumble that I had become so familiar with.
I barely noticed what he was saying, the sensation of Dal's large hand on my back sent shivers up my spine.
When Dal pulled his hand back he brushed the side of my breast, sending a jolt through me. My lips parted with surprise, but Dal was already turning away, unaware of the contact.
“Come,” he said. Dal got down on his hands and knees, pushing his legs straight behind him, balancing his weight on two python arms and bare toes. The Kraw's back was straight and rigid, knotted with muscle corded over large ribs.
“Can't believe I'm doing this,” I muttered, padding over to Dal.
I sat on his broad back, an easy feat considering his size, and tried to get comfortable. Dal's back was like a slanted bench. Strong, without so much as a wobble or a shake. I loosened my arms and kept my back soft, like he instructed. “Okay,” I said in a flat tone.
And with that, the world began to move up and down as Dal lowered himself and pressed away from the ground, using me for a weight. I was torn between awe and curiosity as the strong muscles bunched and flexed under me. If I wasn't afraid of losing my balance, I would close my eyes and imagine sailing upon a great sea. Atop a Kraw vessel. Silly.
“I still think this is ridiculous,” I said as the world rose.
“Strength must be preserved,” Dal said with a grunt. “Weakness is eliminated.”
“And you guys think humans are primitive,” I muttered.
A slight tremor shook Dal's body, and I looked down to see if I was too heavy, but in fact, he was laughing. The world continued to rise and fall.
“I am glad that you find that amusing every time I say it,” I said in a flat tone.
“You say much that amuses.”
“And you say much that irritates.”
“You are fortunate, Sera, that I am amused, and not irritated, as you are.”
“What in the world is that supposed to mean?”
Dal grunted as the world lowered. “Kraw do not tolerate irritation.”
“Well maybe Sera does not tolerate irritation,” I muttered, crossing my arms.
The world continued to rise and fall for a time, Dal's skin becoming heated and slick as the minutes wore on. His grunts came more often as minutes ticked into a quarter of an hour or more, and I hugged my knees against myself, looking down at arms that were, as Dal had said, no longer bones. He was right, over the weeks the Kraw had provided us with enough food that I was skeletal no more.
I examined my simple clothing, becoming threadbare in some places. The torn side of my shirt that I had knotted together was becoming frayed, and I feared what kind of abuse my dignity would suffer were I forced to walk around with one breast in the wind. I pulled my blanket cl
oser around myself. It was thin and simple, but I could have Dal rip it in strategic places so that I could tie together a new shirt. But then lose my blanket.
Finally, Dal's strong back began to shake, and after another five minutes of rising and falling, he lowered himself one last time. The strong black lines of tattoo tracing over Dal's back expanded and contracted with his breathing as he lay in the dirt. I leaned over and looked at Dal's face. “What do the symbols on your skin mean?”
Dal ignored me for a time as he caught his breath. I got up, and Dal rolled over to his back with a satisfied sigh. Eyes closed, the massive Kraw cooled off on the cold dirt floor. I looked over the tattoos, which flowed in mesmerizing, parallel patterns over his whole body. My gaze stopped, as it always did, on the piercings in his dark nipples, wondering what possible purpose that served a man who fought as much as Dal did.
Did Kraw women find Dal attractive? Was he just another grunt in this militaristic society? Why was he here with me?
The door opened then, and I startled as two male Kraw entered with a large basin of water. They took in the scene, a sweaty Dal laying on the floor, eyes closed, and me, standing nearby.
One of the strange Kraw said something that caused Dal to frown into the backs of his eyelids. He responded with terse grunts of his own, causing the other two Kraw to laugh. One came over to me, and I gasped and backed away. There was no point, though, as the strange Kraw's large hand found my arm and lifted me off my feet. My blanket fell to the floor. He shook me like a rag doll, talking some more with a sneer.
“Put me down you ape,” I said, clawing at the Kraw hand with my free fingers.
Dal lay there, indifferent to my plight, grumbling his strange language at the two Kraw in bored tones. They laughed, and two strange gazes turned on me, raking up and down my body, stretched from one arm to my dangling toes. Fear licked up my spine as I realized that their eyes lingered too long.
The two Kraw spoke amongst themselves, letting off quiet barks of laughter now and then, and the other came over and pulled at my thin shirt. It frayed away as cold air bit at my exposed flesh, falling to the floor as I gasped and tried to cover myself with my free hand. The two Kraw spoke some more, gesturing at my breasts, but their voices blurred together in my panic.
